Woman drink-driver caught

MELINDA SINGYOU escaped a jail sentence after being caught outside the Lismore Courthouse drink-driving while still on parole for a previous jail sentence.

She had just left the court after her son was jailed for a serious sexual assault on a child.

Singyou, 46, a former long-time Nimbin resident now living at Blacktown in Sydney, pleaded guilty in Lismore Local Court to mid-range PCA with a blood/alcohol reading of 0.090 in Zadoc Street at 12.30pm on October 30 last year.

Defence lawyer Vince Boss argued for a good behaviour bond without conviction for his client saying ‘her circumstances put it in the exceptional category because of the events in her life’.

Mr Boss said Singyou had been released from jail on a two-year supervised parole and was the carer for her elderly mother. While in jail her son had been arrested and put in Grafton Jail.

Mr Boss said Singyou had not been told the full details of her son’s offence and had been supporting him until attending Lismore District Court where she learned the facts when he was sentenced for sexually assaulting a child.

“She had a lot on her mind when leaving the court. She turned to apologise to a person, only to be told she was a drunken ....,” he said. “She wheeled her mother down the court house ramp and pulled out in her car to do a U-turn to pick up her mother when the police breath-tested her.”

Magistrate Robyn Denes said Singyou was before the court because she had been driving while over the legal limit and while on parole.

Ms Denes said she wondered about a woman drinking two-and-a-half glasses of Jim Beam at 9am and detected over three hours later driving with a mid-range offence.

After consideration of the matter Ms Denes gave Singyou the benefit of the legal argument and placed her on a Section 10 bond without conviction, providing she not reoffend within the next 18 months.